Shut Up, Meg!
Evil Genius Beer Company

 

Sunny yellow in color with a light, persistent haze. Poured with a moderate, creamy, bright white foam with excellent retention. Medium banana and bubble gum esters with light tropical notes. Medium light malt aromas. Medium bodied with medium high carbonation. Soft, mouth filling creamy feel rolls through the assertive carbonation followed by light warmth at the end. Malty and citrusy flavors up front with light malt and bubble gum notes beneath. Medium hop bitterness through the middle followed banana esters surrounded by citrus hop bitterness to the end. Finished semi-dryly with sweet malty flavors, citrussy hop notes a d light banana esters. A lot going on here. This beer is bi-polar. It's an IPA when second and a farmhouse ale the next. An odd, but interesting combination that challenges the taste buds. Pretty tasty and easy drinking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poured from a 12 oz bottle into a pint glass.

L: Cloudy golden copper pour. 3 fingers of big foamy white head. Great lacing and retention.

S: Lemon citrus and spicy yeast.

T/F: Grass and grains... saison yeast complexity... coriander and lemongrass. Strong citrus presence... sharp, with mild hop bitterness. Effervescent/bubbly... almost champagne -like. Light in body. Finish is lemon.

O: Really tasty Saison-style IPA. Lots of saison presence... citrusy and yummy, and love the 'Family Guy' reference to boot.

 

 

 

 

 

Evil Genius Beer Company "Shut Up, Meg!"
12 fl. oz. brown glass bottle, coded "03/30/17" and sampled on 05/15/17
$2 @ Weis Market # 231, Conshohocken, PA

Notes via stream of consciousness: Upon opening the bottle I smell the Belgian yeast prior to the hops. What the name refers to I have no clue, I'll have to google it. Family Guy? Ah, I never liked that show. I watched the first two or three episodes and gave up. I don't even have a TV now, I live in "a van down by the river!". Kidding. Nice pour. Hazy golden body looks almost orange in the full glass. Soapy white head. Better than average head retention and lacing so far. Aroma, again, mainly of Belgian yeast, chalky and mineralish with some spiciness and plastic-like phenols but also fruity with some tropical notes (papaya, peach, apricot, mango). Fairly bold aroma. Bright and enticing. The flavor follows, although softer and smoother where the yeastiness is concerned, and I guess, perhaps with the hoppy fruitiness as well. It's all there though, and in all honesty, it's even more complex if you dig through it. Some notes in general: grainy and straw-like malt, rock-candy sugar, grass, lemon, berry, goose berry, white grape, lychee, passion fruit, grapefruit, soft pepper spiciness that's more like white pepper than black pepper, subtle pine like dried needles on a forest floor, woodsy, a little like cedar. It's all there and it all ties together and it's nicely balanced but it's somehow missing that magical "j'ne sais quois" ~ almost as if it was a bit too heavy handed, and yet that's clearly not the case, it's almost like it's floating above the earth and shrouded in mist, or is that the answer, that there's not a point where it's kind of anchored and it just spins? I don't know. I'm not sure I'm expressing what I'm thinking clearly ~ wait, that's it exactly! There's so much going on between the Belgian yeast and the fruity hops that there's no focal point and you just go from note to note like a beautiful but slow moving song. So, conclusion... maybe it lacks a little focus but what's there is really good. Worth trying.

 

 

The eradication of the Bottle Backlog here at Chez Woody continues as I am in the midst of a small Evil Genius horizontal. I find it a nice change of pace with these guys in that the names are simply pop culture references & the beers are stylistically challenging.

From the bottle: "Farmhouse India Pale Ale"

I Pop!ped the cap and since it is a type of Saison, I agitated in the bottle & then gave it an aggro pour. I had to pour it in fits & starts since it was foaming quite a bit. It finally settled into two-plus fingers of dense, rocky, bone-white head with excellent retention, leaving great lacing in its wake as it fell. Color was a deeply-hazy/lightly-cloudy Yellow-Gold (SRM = 4 - 5), but at less than 24-carat clarity, The Gelt Gang declined. Nose was interesting in that it had a light Saison-like funkiness melded with a lemony citrusiness and a mintiness that might have been pine. It was difficult to parse just from the nose. Mouthfeel was medium. The taste was an odd amalgam of grapefruit, lemon & funk (no pine or mint, so I may have been imagining it on the nose), adding up to a very bitter, almost sour, beer. Finish was dry & vinous in a white wine sort of way. The problem with these sorts of experimentations is that it does not allow for the best of both worlds. I have had better Saisons and better AIPAs, so where does that leave me when it comes time to assign ratings? This is tough. I like these guys and I like their spirit & ambition, but this was a swing & a miss.

Undated bottle into pint glass. Pours a pale straw color with a persistent white head. Initial impression is lemon peel with some yeastiness. Mouthfeel is rather thin; carbonation is pronounced. Dry finish. Refreshing, but not my cup of tea so to speak.

 

Poured into a narrow glass: color is straw, transparent, head is fluffy bright white, with a mixture of bubble sizes from fine to medium, nice lingering quality with plenty of lacing, would expect a bit more haziness.

Smell is pleasant with a nice yeasty burst of esters and off notes, then some citrusy hops and touch of earthiness.

Taste is less pronounced than I would expect from the aroma, some light yeasty off notes, then light sweet malt and a very dry finish.

Mouthfeel is crisp, a touch heavily carbonated with a dry and strong finish on the tongue.

Overall a solid beer, more like a hoppy/dry saison than a belgian IPA but presents more like a pale ale. anyway, nice big aroma a little thin in the flavor with a decent dry finish.

**
06/24/16
Bottle to pilsner glass.
LOOK:Bright yellow gold. Big white head, lasting.
AROMA: ester, citrus, hops
TASTE: lemon, grass,
FEEL: a touch thin, looks like it has more body than it does....that being said , I am inhaling this beer and it is enjoyable.

Closer to the farmhouse/saison family than the IPA/APA, but a good blend. I would order this. One of the better evil geniuses.

**

12oz bottle thanks to Toby, share on 6/11/16. Hazy pale golden body, small airy white head. Saison aroma, right on the money, bready, spicy, herbal. Taste adds a bit of zing, peppery spicy elements, ending back to the nice malt flavors.

A: Medium muted orange with a slight haze factor and lively display of carbonation, rapidly ascending to the surface. The capping is significant, eggshell white, 1.5 inches high, with a frumpy texture and a very good rate of retention. Lacing leaves a generous amount of coverage on the vessel.

S: Freshly sliced sour lemon wedge, grapefruit pulp and fresh grains. A touch of fresh hay and dry yeastiness. Strength was average, as was the duration.

T: Nice crisp bite of lightly dry orange and lemon. Some grapefruit with a spicy hoppiness. Bready and wheaty notes backs things up. Nice hoppiness, musky citrus fades to a dry bitterness and yeasty bite on the swallow. Some otherwise mention of lightly dried orange peel bitterness.

M: Crisp mouthful, nice tingle on the inner cheeks, spicy bite of hops also tease the senses with a dry warmth. Light malt resistance on the tongue.

O: Overall a nice crisp factor good to style, some musky citrus and farmhouse nature and hops that blend rather well together. The hoppy nature combines with the farmhouse nicely, is balance for good drinkability and summertime enjoyment.

 

 

 

 

 

Snagged a while ago into a pint glass.
A - As expected for a farmhouse very carbonated and bubbly reducing the 1/2 inch of head into practically nothing.
S - Quite nice actually the peppery and lemony body of the style really mends well with a little bit of hops from the IPA.
T - Little bitterness but enough to cover the yeast which is balanced. Taste is mild lemony and some bready body. Simple but I like it!
M - Crisp clean not overly carbonated light to medium in body.

Overall I am impressed it a clean easy going Saison with a nice touch of hops. May be the best beer I had all night!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A-pours a hazy straw color with a white sudsy head with decent retention
S-lemon, herbacious, pepper
T-lemon and peppery flavors dominate, with herb bitterness following, biscuit and straw flavors in the finish
M-medium-light bodied with a good amount of carbonation
O-pretty solid farmhouse style brew. Would like a bit less bitterness and more esters, but overall still a good beer

Pours a lightly hazy golden yellow color with white, thin, bubbly head. Aroma is grassy, herbal, lightly funky with a fresh bready sweetness. Hops are very fresh and crisp in the taste too with the malt base being subtle. Crisp medium carbonation and a light body this beer is refreshing and easy to drink. Good for saison lovers!